Jersey City’s third annual Golden Door International Film Festival kicked off last night with a red carpet gala and the screening of two films at the gilded Landmark Loew’s Jersey Theatre on Journal Square.

“It is amazing, bigger and better,” said festival organizer Bill Sorvino, who is an actor, a Jersey City native and the nephew of Paul Sorvino of “Goodfellas” fame. “The fest’s thrust is to give filmmakers and actors the same platform whether known or unknown.

“And really (the goal) is to have the most prominent film festival on this side of the Hudson and give Jersey City a shining jewel to beam back across to those big buildings over there.”

The short film “The Fix,” by Ante Novakovic, starring this year’s lifetime achievement award recipient Armand Assante, and “Fall to Grace,” an HBO documentary on former Gov. James McGreevey, were screened last night.

McGreevey is executive director of Jersey City Employment and Training program and works with Integrity House at the Hudson County jail in Kearny to help women inmates “reclaim their lives and successfully re-enter society.”

In August 2004, McGreevey announced he’s gay and stepped down as governor after it was publicized that he had put his lover on the state payroll in a high-paying security job for which he was unqualified.

“To be in Hudson County jail with remarkable woman who loved me for my sake, and I loved them for their sake, and we found God’s grace,” McGreevey said. “It was the fall that was required.”

Paul Sorvino joined the festivities last night, sipping champagne in the Loew’s ornate lobby.